UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLIANCE BEHAVIOUR OF MALAYSIAN INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYERS USING A MIXED METHOD APPROACH

This article reports on the findings of a mixed method study that was conducted to investigate the impact of the introduction of self assessment on the compliance behaviour of individual taxpayers in Malaysia. The likely impact of this change was uncertain given inconclusive evidence in the literature on the effect of self assessment on compliance behaviour. The findings revealed that the introduction of self assessment had a positive influence on compliance behaviour. In particular, acquiring tax knowledge had significant effects on compliance behaviour. Taxpayers were found to be sensitive to tax audit and penalty. While financial constraints were found to have a more direct and stronger influence on the compliance behaviour of self-employed taxpayers, attitudes towards paying tax appeared to only affect salary and wage earner taxpayers.